1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to robotics and more specifically to telepresence systems.
2. Background Art
In the past, video camera and audio systems were developed for improving communication among individuals who are separated by distance and/or time. The system and the process are now referred to as “videoconferencing”. Videoconferencing sought to duplicate, to the maximum extent possible, the full range, level and intensity of interpersonal communication and information sharing which would occur if all the participants were “face-to-face” in the same room at the same time.
Behavioral scientists know that interpersonal communication involves a large number of subtle and complex visual cues, referred to by names like “eye contact” and “body language,” which provide additional information over and above the spoken words and explicit gestures. These cues are, for the most part, processed subconsciously by the participants, and often communicate information, which cannot be communicated in any other fashion.
In addition to spoken words, demonstrative gestures, and behavioral cues, face-to-face contact often involves sitting down, standing up, and moving around to look at objects or charts. This combination of spoken words, gestures, visual cues, and physical movement significantly enhances the effectiveness of communication in a variety of contexts, such as “brainstorming” sessions among professionals in a particular field, consultations between one or more experts and one or more clients, sensitive business or political negotiations, etc. In situations where the participants cannot be in the same place at the same time, the beneficial effects of face-to-face contact will be realized only to the extent that each of the remotely located participants can be “recreated” at each site.
Although videoconferencing has come into widespread use, it is still of limited use because of the inability to very closely approximate for a user the recreation of the remotely located participants. The systems generally use fixed location cameras and confcrence-type telephones. There is no sense of the presence of the user being at the site of a remote meeting or of the presence of the remotely located participants being with the user.
To overcome these problems, a system called “robotic telepresence” has been developed. In robotic telepresence, a remotely controlled robot simulates the presence of the user for the remotely located participants. The user has a freedom of motion and control over the robot and video input that is not present in traditional videoconferencing, and this better simulates the feeling of the user being present in person at a remote site. The overall experience for the user and the people interacting with the robotic telepresence device is very much superior to videoconferencing.
The robot platform typically includes a camera, a display device, a motorized platform that includes batteries, a control computer, and a wireless computer network connection. An image of the user is captured by a camera at the user's location and displayed on the display of the robotic telepresence device in the remote site.
In a previous approach, a robotic device was built on a remote controlled car. However, driving the car remotely was considerably more difficult than personally walking through the same area. The robotic device used a single small camera with a relatively small field of view and low resolution. This device shared problems with videoconferencing in that the user had “tunnel vision.” The user was not provided with a peripheral view of the environment as compared to human peripheral vision. In addition, the central resolution of the remote camera was much lower than that of the human eye, which made it difficult to remotely read anything other than very large text.
The robotic device displayed the user's image on a small LCD screen about three inches tall, which did not move independently of the robotic platform. This display did not provide an appearance of eye contact between the remote user and others interacting with the remote user via the robot. The lack of eye contact makes it difficult for people to relate naturally to the person using the robotic device.
More recently, a robotic telepresence system has been developed, which has a user station at a first geographic location and a robot at a second geographic location. The user station is responsive to a user and communicates information to and from the user. The robot is coupled to the user station and provides a three dimensional representation of the user transmitted from the user station. The robot also senses predetermined types of information and communicates the sensed information back to the user to provide a three dimensional representation of the user. As a result of the three dimensional representation, eye contact between the user and others interacting with the robot at the remote location is improved.
However, there are many problems that still need to be addressed to provide improved robotic telepresence realism; i.e., to make the user appear to be present in person. One situation that has been noted is that, during human interactions, the sitting or standing position of people conveys information to other people and it is desirable to replicate the user's position. However, there are two problems. First, a mechanism is required for accurately measuring the height of the user's head in a non-invasive fashion. Second, a mechanism is required for mechanically adjusting the head height of the robotic device.
Solutions to problems of this sort have been long sought, but have long eluded those skilled in the art.